Barrow County, for instance, shut down its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at 7:00 Tuesday after being open for 33 straight hours but will immediately reopen if conditions warrant.
Hall County expects to do the same Tuesday night (See below.)
However, with the roads still treacherous due to icing they are still asking you to stay home.
"The roads are still dangerous and we don't want folks driving on them today," said Interim Chief John Skinner. "It does appear that citizens are heeding this warning again which has allowed us to handle this storm much better."
Utilized to monitor calls, personnel and apparatus throughout the storm, the EOC was a hub of activity throughout the storm. An additional key function of the EOC was to keep the information flowing in order to keep the citizens and all departmental personnel informed of hazardous conditions.
The EOC also stayed in constant contact with other county public safety departments as well as surrounding counties.
"This allowed us to not only know what help was available," stated Chief Skinner, "but it also allowed us all to communicate with each other to determine what conditions were like on the roadways in the county and surrounding areas."
As for staffing the department will keep two additional apparatus until noon and will re-evaluate the conditions again at that point. The apparatus will continue to handle non-emergent calls and assist when needed on emergent calls.
From midnight Sunday until 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, Communication Officers handled 891 calls into the dispatch center. This included 196 calls that came through the 911 lines. Some of these calls included 32 requests to assist stranded motorists and 14 motor vehicle collisions.
"These totals do not include everything that happened," said Chief Skinner. "Both law enforcement and fire personnel handled several calls such as abandoned vehicles without calling in reports in order to reduce call volume into our dispatch center."
"By citizens staying home yesterday and last night we were able to handle the calls that came in for assistance," Chief Skinner added. "I am very happy with the way things went in through this storm. The citizens stayed home like we asked and all the personnel in the department handled calls very well."
HALL COUNTY
County officials say since late Sunday night, Public Works & Utilities have been using a snow plow and seven scrapers to clear primary roads of snow and ice, and 12 spreaders to distribute calcium, stone and sand.
"We have seen a number of motorists stranded on roads, which makes it more difficult for us to get the roads clear. The best thing people can do at this point is stay home and stay safe," Road Maintenance Superintendent Jimmy Hightower said.
So far, it appears that residents are taking that advice.
Hall County Central Communications has seen fewer 911 calls than anticipated. The Hall County Sheriff's Office worked 27 accidents between 7 p.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday, Col. Jeff Strickland said.
"Today the call volume was fairly low, and we attribute that to people staying in," Col. Strickland said. "Tomorrow will be as treacherous or more treacherous than today because of the refreeze overnight. I strongly urge that residents evaluate conditions in the morning and if you must drive, drive very slowly and cautiously."
While the EOC has been in operation "We've had a lot of cooperation among all the different departments," Public Safety Director Marty Nix said. "We've worked well together in the EOC, and those combined efforts made things go a lot smoother."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/1/235206